A couple of hours later
I poked, prodded, and erected the metal arm I was designing for Bucky. He probably wasn't all that used to not having an arm, so I wanted to get it done as soon as possible.
And for other reasons, like how I wanted him to be able to hold me with both hands.
But that was different.
Shuri's head poked into my lab.
"NICO!" she exclaimed.
"What?!" I exclaimed in return, about to leap out of my seat. You don't frighten an engineer while they're working. EVER.
"Nico, I found a song on the internet and I want to know if you know it," she said hurriedly.
"Well, sing it for me, maybe I will," I replied, looking up from my project and setting down my pencil.
Shuri crossed her arms.
"How am I going to know what song it is if you don't sing it for me?!" I demanded. "I mean, I don't really care, I'm working here, but if you really must know-"
"Fine! Fine, I'll sing it," she sighed. Shuri cleared her throat and began to sing a tune from "Beauty and the Beast".
"Tale as old as time-"
"Meme as old as vine," I sang in return, cutting her off and taking a chance at making the most perfect duet in meme history.
"Beauty and the yeet!" We both finished in sync.
It took a moment for us both to start laughing hysterically.
"Um... are you two okay?"
Bucky was standing behind Shuri, looking as confused as one can possibly get.
So I obviously had to do the most acceptable thing to do at the time:
I stood straight, looked him in the eye, grinned as widely as possible, made a "t-pose" with my arms, and said, "Welcome to Chili's."
Shuri sank to her knees, giggling like mad as Bucky's head tilted to the side, clearly perplexed.
"I- what- who- why- Nico, literally 3 hours ago I was certain that I knew who you were, but now..."
Shuri choked as she slowly pulled herself to her feet.
"Aw, I can't believe you've done this," she told me.
I fell into my chair to stop myself from falling over as I laughed so hard I felt like I was going to puke up my lungs.
Oh, the things Vine has done to this world.
"To think, you are two of the smartest people on the face of the earth..." Bucky mused, leaning against a wall and waiting for us to stop.
Shuri finally managed to make it inside of my lab, pull up a chair, and sit down, burying her face in her hands and giggling quietly.
"We are smart!" I protested. "Right Shuri?"
"Mhmm," she replied.
"Not as mature as I'd like my roommate to be, though," Bucky mused.
Shuri's head snapped up, and we locked gazes.
"AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES!" we both yelled in sync, doubling over in laughter. Bucky began to snigger at our complete immaturity.
"If it doesn't bother you, I'm going to go, now," he said slowly, escaping down the hall and leaving me and Shuri to reminisce on the good days of when Vine was still a thing.
Oh, how I'll miss good old wholesome Vine. If it wasn't shut down a month ago, I'd probably still have it. I was getting separation anxiety from the 6-second clips of pure stupidity and amazingness.
When was the last time I'd even watched a Vine?
Probably, like, a week ago. Most of them were on YouTube.
"You've seen Vine? I didn't think they had Vine in Wakanda," I said, beginning to work on the metal arm once again.
"Yes, of course. My brother is always just as confused as Bucky," Shuri replied.
"Wait, wait, wait, you never showed T'Challa Vine?!"
"Nope,"
"That should be illegal. Just imagine how much better Wakanda would be if T'Challa had Vine,"
Shuri imagined it for a moment. Apparently, it wasn't that great of a thing to imagine, because she made a face of disgust.
"We'd all be in complete chaos. T'Challa is usually pretty serious, but with Vine..."
Shuri trailed off. I scoffed turning back to my computer.
"He needs some milk," I grumbled.
Shuri laughed, elbowing me in the arm.
"Dealing with you is already gonna be a handful. I'd rather not get my brother hooked up on Vine,"
"Don't worry, I promise to not be annoying," I said.
Shuri cast me a sideways look.
"Sometimes," I added.
She smirked. "That's what I thought. If you'll excuse me, I will now go back to trying to focus on an important project,"
"Oh? What is this project?" I asked incredulously.
"Nunya,"
"What the heck is Nunya?!"
"None ya business,"
I sighed, knowing I should've known that one. Shuri stuck her tongue out at me and got to work, typing into her computer.
A silent moment passed.
Suddenly, words escaped my mouth without my consent.
"Oh my god, they were roommates!"
YOU ARE READING
The Engineer (Bucky Barnes x OC)
FanfictionNico Mullins is proud to have a Latina mother and a Caucasian father and happily identifies himself as Latino. He is a skilled engineer and has made most of the things that he owns. He loves to build things because it seems to be all he can do- crea...
